Mountain Biking and Weddings over the top in Summer, 2006

Summer was good. We particularly saw huge growth in mountain biking
related activities. The mountain biking side of the business
grew 55 per cent over last year, and there were almost twice as many
mountain bike season’s passholders in 2005 than the previous year.

Bonell attributed the bigger numbers to the Resort focusing on maintaining
the biking trails every day. She also said having two chairlifts dedicated
to mountain bikers, complete with a special attachment to transport
the bikes up the hill, has helped grow that side of the business. The
mountain bike events were also quite successful.

We’re really making efforts on the trails on the mountain and
we’re getting good feedback from the mountain bikers. We’re
running two chairlifts so there’s no lift lines,” she added.

Horseback riding was as popular as ever, and the mini-golf course
attracted lots of families.

All our events (the WineFest, Chocolate Fest, BeerFest, etc.) are
working really well,” she said, adding that the marketing department
will look at expanding summertime events next year.

Another good marriage for the Resort’s summer season has been
hosting weddings at Raven Lodge. “We’re now booking Raven
Lodge into 2007,” Bonell said. Feedback from wedding parties is
that the Resort is such a stellar setting; people are getting married
on the peak as well as at the picturesque Raven Lodge.

Raven Lodge is really the setting of choice,” she said. “It’s
been a nice addition for us.’

A new trend this year for weddings was bookings on Fridays and Sundays,
as well as the traditional Saturday ceremonies. The Resort responded
with Sunday brunches to take advantage of the weekend wedding parties
with average crowds of 100 people.

So there’s some good spin-offs from weddings. It’s really
opening people’s eyes to the facilities up here, people who might
not otherwise have come on up.”